Why You Should Be An Amazon Affiliate If You Are An Author

Are you using the Amazon affiliate program to make more money from your books?

I am sure many authors will cringe at the thought of the words, affiliate marketing. But please sit back and relax for a moment.

If you are an author, you write, publish, promote and sell books and ebooks. Then at the end of each month, you receive your royalty payment from Amazon.

But did you know that you can top up your Amazon book sales income with one very small change to the way you promote your books?

By registering with the Amazon Associates Program, you can then add a special link to all your book promotion links and posts. With this link, you can then earn advertising fees.

I can hear you saying that the advertising commission on an ebook sale will be peanuts. And you are right!

But the big bonus with Amazon affiliate links is that you can earn a commission on other items that people buy on the Amazon site. For a 24 hour period after clicking on your link, you can earn a commission on anything else they buy.

There are many different ways you can use the Amazon affiliate program, but let’s look first at how you can get started.

Registering and setting up Amazon Associates

To get started, you need to go to the Associates home page and register.

You start your registration process by clicking the Join Now For Free button.

If you live in the US, you will choose the US program. But if you live in other countries, there are programs for the UK, Japan, Canada, Italy Germany, Spain, France and neighbouring countries.

You don’t need to be too worried though. After you have registered, you can merge all these country accounts into one link later.

Once you are registered, the first thing to do is to set up your Amazon Stripe. This will appear at the top of your screen any time you visit an Amazon page.

Now you are ready to copy associate links from your site stripe to your books. You can use them in your blog posts or on social media, or anywhere else you promote your books.

Finding and using your new affiliate link

Go to your book page on Amazon, and if all is set up correctly, you will see your new stripe at the top of the page.

You can select the types of links you want, such as text, image or a combo. You can also directly share your book page on social media. You can even add responsive native ads which will resize on any device.

To create a text link is super easy. Click on Text, and you will see this drop-down box.

You have the option to use your full link, but usually, a short link is better. Now you can embed this link into text on your blog or even as a link on an image.

If you have your book covers on your blog sidebar, just add a new affiliate link to each one.

You can also create links using your book cover image. All you need to do is copy the HTML code and paste onto your blog pages.

Lastly, you can create responsive ads that will resize perfectly on mobile devices.

Your ads are set up and working, so where’s the money?

Once you have your links set up, you will earn a small extra commission on your book sales. Yes, small. But if someone clicks on your link and then makes another purchase within 24 hours, your account will be credited with an earnings fee.

Here is a brief report from my account to show you an example how you can earn Amazon Affiliate commission.

The table above is only a small snapshot. I have to say that some months can be very good, while others are not so good. There is a little bit of luck involved.

On occasions, I have earned excellent commissions on such items as televisions, electronic devices and even once, a complete home video surveillance system.

Once your links are up and running, there is nothing more you need to do. Your new book links will be working for you 24/7 for a very long time to take advantage of what Amazon customers buy.

Making more from your Amazon Associates account

If you would like to try your hand at Internet marketing, you now have all the tools. But you don’t need to go overboard.

When you write blog posts, you mention a lot of topics and subjects. Some might be good candidates for you to recommend products or product reviews. For instance, if you love your Kindle Voyage and write a review about it, you can add either a link, an image link or an ad like the one below to your article.

The custom ad above took me less than thirty seconds to insert. I just went to the Amazon page for Kindles and then copied and inserted the code here.

You certainly don’t want to fill your blog posts with ads like the one above. But by using text links, you can subtly offer extra information and value for your readers.

By the way, did you know that I recently released my first ever audiobook, One Last Love? It has even received some nice reviews, so I am over the moon.

Yes, that was a terribly blatant plug, I know. Please ignore my misplaced enthusiasm, and I will return to the topic of this article.

However, it does illustrate how easy it is to add an income earning link into text in your blog articles.

Don’t turn your blog into an affiliate site

As tempting as it might sound, you are not going to make a fortune from Amazon affiliate commission.

For any blogger, and more importantly for authors, it is a means to make a little more each month. Used wisely, it can do that, but don’t expect miracles.

Concentrate on slowly building your blog traffic from search engines with some basic SEO, and write great blog articles for you
r readers.

Logically, the more traffic you have, the more you can earn. Then let your new book promotion links and your occasional Amazon ads go to work for you.

Wrap-Up

Depending on where you live, there are different payment conditions and options.

You will need to select the one that works best for you. In some countries, Amazon offers electronic payment, but in others, it is only payment by check.

However, there is an option to have your earnings paid into your gift card account, which is an option worth considering.

It might not be for every author. But by taking the time to set up your account and updating your book links to Amazon affiliate links, it will give you a new potential income stream. That is certainly not a bad thing at all.

There is very little technical knowledge required. If you are blogging already, you probably have all the skills you need to get started.

Even if you aren’t blogging, you can use these links in your posts on Facebook, Twitter or on any other social network you use.

There is more than one way to take advantage of affiliate links, so what are you waiting for?